Christian F. Ostermann is director of the History and Public Policy Program (HAPP) as well as the director of the Global Europe Program (GE) at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Under his purview as director of HAPP and GE, Ostermann also oversees the Cold War International History Program (CWIHP), the European Energy Security Initiative (EESI), the North Korea International Documentation Project (NKIDP) and the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project (NPIHP). Additionally, Ostermann has chaired the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award since 2006, and currently serves as a co-editor of Cold War History as well as an editor of the CWIHP Bulletin. Ostermann also often works as a consultant on many historical documentaries.

Prior to joining the Wilson Center in 1997 as an associate director of CWIHP, Ostermann worked as a research fellow at The George Washington University’s National Security Archive, involvement that still continues today with his role as a Senior Research Fellow at the National Security Archive. At the same time, Ostermann also worked as a lecturer in history and international affairs at Georgetown University and The George Washington University. Further back, before coming to Washington, he studied in Bonn, Cologne and Hamburg and worked as a research fellow at the Commission for the History of Parliament and Political Parties in Bonn, Germany. Ostermann is the author of numerous publications including The Rise and Fall of Détente on the Korean Peninsula, 1970-1974 (2011), edited with James Person; Crisis and Confrontation on the Korean Peninsula: 1968-1969 (2010), edited with James Person; Connecting Histories: Decolonization and the Cold War in Southeast Asia, 1945-1962(2010), ed. with Christopher Goscha; Inside China’s Cold War (CWIHP Bulletin 16 (2008/2009)) and Uprising in East Germany 1953: The Cold War, The German Question, and the First Major Upheaval Behind the Iron Curtain (2001) with Charlers S. Maier.

While the military contest between North and South dragged on inconclusively over four years, an equally crucial contest of diplomacy, ideology, and propaganda was waged abroad. Powerful economic interests and anti-democratic sympathies favored the South. On the other hand there was a reservoir of popular good will toward the "Great Republic" and widespread antipathy toward human slavery. Each side sought to shape foreign debate over the "American Question." The Union won only when it learned to align its cause with what foreigners understood to be an ongoing international struggle for liberty, equality, and self-government. more

When a country emerges from conflict, citizens demand that perpetrators be held accountable for past violations of human rights; that the governmental system be reformed to prevent a future recurrence of past repressive practices; that the truth be told about what really happened, both in personal terms (such as learning the fate of a loved one) and in terms of how the society came to be what it was; and that reparation be made for the moral and material losses suffered during the period of oppression. Archives are essential to meet these demands. more

What are the issues of judgment, perspective, and stance that confront historians whose subjects played a role in debates about Stalinism, McCarthyism, and Communism? In the years when the Cold War shaped perceptions, historians identified themselves with particular political positions. But what is the view toward such issues today? Is the intellectual Cold War over? Or does it still constrain our minds and our words? Lillian Hellman will serve as a case in point in this presentation with Columbia University R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of American History Alice Kessler-Harris. more

Oleg Kozlovsky, a political activist and co-founder of Solidarnost, United Democratic Movement in Russia, received the 2010 Ion Ratiu Democracy Award on Thursday on 2 December at the Woodrow Wilson Center, as part of a two-panel workshop featuring a round-table discussion After the "Reset:" U.S. and European Approaches to Russia and a keynote address Democracy: New Tools for the Struggle. more

Few events in the history of the twentieth century are as controversial, politicized, and laden with emotion as is the launching of operation Barbarossa—the German Invasion of Russia. It has become a fertile ground for conspiracy theories and a subject of unending polemics. This presentation will discuss a vital but missing dimension: the subjugation of ideological premises to the everlasting Russian imperial legacy as the driving force behind Stalin's policies on the eve of operation Barbarossa. more

Pages

The Global Europe Program is pleased to announce the launch of a new collaborative publication series between the Wilson Center and the Istanbul Policy Center: the IPC-Wilson Center Turkey Papers. In the inaugural publication in the series, Kemal Kirişci discusses “TTIP’s Enlargement and the Case of Turkey.” Kirişci argues that Turkey’s inclusion in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership would be economically and geo-strategically advantageous for all parties involved.

CWIHP is pleased to announce the publication of the conference transcript and report from "Moles, Defectors, and Deceptions: James Angleton and His Influence on US Counterintelligence," a joint conference held by the Wilson Center and the Georgetown University Center for Peace & Security Studies.

The Kennan Institute and the Global Europe Program kicked off the year with a scholar luncheon. Directors Christian Ostermann and Matthew Rojansky highlighted their interest in inter-program and inter-scholar cooperation and dialogue. The lunch was held as an informal starting point for fruitful collaboration between scholars with intersecting academic interests.

The program will provide Korean students currently enrolled in an advanced degree program the opportunity to spend between three to six months at the Center conducting advanced research on an important public policy issue or a topic in international history.

The Woodrow Wilson Center is pleased to announce an important new project, the ECNU-Wilson Center Cold War Studies Initiative which is a natural outgrowth of the longstanding, close relationship between the Wilson Center's flagship Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) and East China Normal University's (ECNU) Cold War International Studies Center.

The relationship of Africa with the rest of the world is undergoing a fascinating transformation. While more than ever, economists point to the potential of Africa's development, the strategic community is often reducing its focus on the rising role of China and other emerging powers in the extraction of natural resources on the African continent.

“When it comes to the Arab revolts and Turkey’s relations with its near abroad, there are more questions than answers to be found,” claimed Cengiz Candar. He argued that Turkey’s foreign policy agenda seems to be complicated by its inconsistent approach to the revolutions in the Middle East and Turkey’s publicity-seeking Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu.

In Germany, the greening of waste management has reduced greenhouse gas emissions, cut waste management costs and has allowed cities to save energy. These benefits have been achieved by treating, sorting and recycling municipal waste, making landfills obsolete.

Greg Castillo, Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley will discuss his latest book, an in-depth history of how domestic goods and environments were exploited on both sides of the Iron Curtain to promote either capitalism or socialism.

Henry Kissinger is perhaps the most famous and most controversial American diplomat of the twentieth century. Much of the literature about him emphasizes his geopolitical approach to international relations, his European background, and his advocacy of Realpolitik. But to a large extent of his foreign policy was fundamentally shaped and conditioned by domestic politics. Kissinger ultimately failed to bring about a different approach to foreign policy, one moving beyond American exceptionalism and toward an understanding of the limits of power.

"Crisis and Confrontation on the Korean Peninsula, 1968-19694" features the transcript of the first in a series of critical oral history conferences jointly convened by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ North Korea International Documentation Project and the University of North Korean Studies and a selection of primary source documents.

Pages

Oleg Kozlovsky, a Russian democracy and human rights activist. Kozlovsky is cofounder of the Solidarnost United Democratic Movement. Christian Ostermann is the director of numerous programs at the Wilson Center including the History and Public Policy and European programs.

Christian Ostermann is Director of the Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center; Svetlana Savranskaya is a Research Fellow at the National Security Archive; Hope Harrison is Assistant Professor of History at George Washington University.

Christian Ostermann is Director of the Cold War International History Project at the WWC; Svetlana Savranskaya is a Research Fellow at the National Security Archive; Hope Harrison is Assistant Professor of History at George Washington University